BlockBefore

New Athens, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1912 and the latest in 1990. It stands in New Athens Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62264. It stands on Silver Creek. The Survey maps it on the New Athens West quadrangle. 1,955 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 430 feet above sea level.

New Athens within St. Clair County

Population over time

2 figures

New Athens fell from 2,054 to 1,955 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20102,054
20201,955-99 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 14 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

822 words on this township

History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With Illustrations ... and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on New Athens Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

New Athens, or Athens, as it was first called, was laid off by Narcisse Pensoneau in 1836. It consisted of forty-eight blocks, comprising 461 lots and a public square. Streets were of a uniform width of 63 feet, save Water, which was 99 feet wide. It is beautifully situated, and at times has seemed destined to become a city of considerable size only to lapse again almost into a series of farms. At first ii grew rapidly, reaching as great a population, it is claimed, as 1,500 inhabitants. In 1851 there were only five inhabitants. The first business house was a general store of Narcisse Pensoneau. The first physician was Dr. A. Trapp in 1837, the second Dr. Edward Klinckhardt, who is still a re'sident. George Rock kept entertainment for travellers in 1838. During the same year the first mill (a saw mill and corn cracker) was built. John Irwin was the first teacher ; he taught in 1836. William Brock burned the first kiln of brick in 1838 or 9. A house built of some of the brick still stands a quarter of a mile south-east of New Athens. It was built and at first occupied by Pensoneau. The prospects were bright, but reverses came, and in fifteen years the town was quite deserted, when a fresh impetus was given it by the opening of a store by Baumann Bros.

Passage source: History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With Illustrations ... and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881.

Again it revived. The steamboat " Pearl" undertook to make regular trips, followed shortly after by the " Silver Lake." In 1852 a post-office was established and William H. Bennett was appointed Postmaster. Was succeeded in 1856 by William Baumann, who continued as such until near the close of Lincoln's administration. The Athens Mill Company was incorporated and mill built in 1857 at a cost of $18,000. The company also bought the steamboat " Wild Duck" to ply upon the river between Athens and Kaskaskia.

Passage source: History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With Illustrations ... and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881.

Great confusion resulted from the fact that there was another Athens in the State. Baumann Bros, had 14 casej of boots and shoes and other merchandize shipped from Boston during the winter of 1855-6 which reached its destination the following spring, having wintered at Athens, Menard county. A change was made in the name from Athens to New Athens, in 1868.

Passage source: History of St. Clair County, Illinois. With Illustrations ... and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers, published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on New Athens Township - it names this place 3 more 3 times.

Storms near this place

31 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names New Athens in 31 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 20 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 1994Thunderstorm WindNew Athens$50,000Power lines and poles were blown down just east of Freeburg. The county sheriff also reported several large trees down in New Athens which damaged parked cars.
April 1993HailNew Athens$5,000County officials reported golf ball-size hail and wind gusts to 45 mph.
July 1996Thunderstorm WindNew Athens$2,000no account filed
May 1993HailNew Athens$500Ham radio operators reported one inch diameter hail in Smithton. Flash flooding was also reported along Highway 159 south of Belleville. The St.Clair EOC reported one inch diameter hail near Athens.
June 1995Thunderstorm WindNew Athens$400Utility poles and lines were knocked down causing power outages.
March 2026Thunderstorm WindNew Athens-A trained spotter estimated 60 mph winds in New Athens a few minutes after a tornado with max wind gusts of 90 mph struck the town.
March 2026Thunderstorm WindNew Athens-Thunderstorm winds downed a tree which blocked Baldwin Road near New Athens. They also downed power lines and damaged a home to an unknown degree.
March 2026Tornado (EF1)New Athens-New Athens took a direct hit from this tornado. It touched down near Julia Street where it busted the windows of a local shop and damaged the roof of a warehouse building. The tornado pathed east-northeast through town, damaging, to varying extent, multiple roofs on Lela Drive. The tornado then weakened, causing less and weaker damage before dissipating just east of the Canadian National Railway.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindNew Athens-Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees and power lines.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindNew Athens-Numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down between New Athens and Marissa.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindNew Athens-The public reported wind gusts around 60 mph with a few trees down.
May 2003HailNew Athens-Amateur radio spotters relayed a report of 3/4 inch hail from the New Athens Fire Department.
May 2002Thunderstorm WindNew Athens-The St. Clair County Emergency Operations Center reported trees and power lines down with some homes damaged by downed trees.
April 2000HailNew Athens-Storm spotters reported 1 inch hail.
March 2025HailNew Athens-no account filed
March 2025HailNew Athens-no account filed
May 2023HailNew Athens-no account filed
February 2017HailNew Athens-no account filed
May 2016HailNew Athens-no account filed
July 2011HailNew Athens-no account filed
April 2007HailNew Athens-no account filed
April 2006HailNew Athens-no account filed
April 2006HailNew Athens-no account filed
May 2006HailNew Athens-no account filed
March 2005HailNew Athens-no account filed
March 2005HailNew Athens-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindNew Athens-no account filed
November 2005HailNew Athens-no account filed
May 2003HailNew Athens-no account filed
May 2003HailNew Athens-no account filed
July 1996HailNew Athens-no account filed

Every storm recorded in St. Clair County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Lementon3.6 miles14
Lenzburg4.2 miles14
Fayetteville5.6 miles14
Freeburg7.2 miles13
Darmstadt7.7 miles11
Old Marissa8.0 miles14
Smithton8.3 miles13
Marissa8.5 miles14

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on New AthensAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1958857The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 426443. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.